Machine for binding books



Oct. 17, 1933. H, c ALGER r AL MACHINE FOR BINDING BOOKS Filed May 9,1931 2 SbsetsSheet l Oct. 17, 1933.

H. c. ALGER ET AL 1,931,244 MACHINE FOR BINDING BOOKS- Filed May 9, 19312 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Oct. 17, 1933.

UNITED STATES ATE T F ICE 6 Claims. (o1. 91-55) i 'j This inventionrelates particularly to'an improved machine for gluing books whereby afirmer bond is obtaine'dbetween the glue and the pages of the books, andis adaptedto be used with a bookbinding and covering machine of the typeshown in the patent to Bredenberg N0. 1,248,252, granted November 27,1917. I

Heretofore, in applying glue to the freshly cut back of the book, greatcare has been exercised to have theglue of the proper consistency and atthe 'right temperature to insure a proper union between the glue and theback of thebook, and later-in the operation, between the glue and thecover; It is difficult in practice to get a glue of a consistency toperform properly both of these functions. A glue of the rightconsistency to ente'r the spaces between the edges of the sheets is muchtoo thin to hold the cover.

If it isof. aproper consistency to hold the cover, it is much too heavyto afford a firm bond between the leaves of the book.

. An object r of this invention is to overcome this'difllculty and toprovidea machine for applying glue which will be of the proper consist-,

ency for both operations.

This and other objects, aswill hereinafter appear, are accomplished bythis invention 'which' is fully described in the followingspecification, and shown in the accompanying drawings, in which-#-Figure 1 is a top plan" view of a machine embodying the invention;

Fig.2 is a partialenlargedfside elevation of i :the same .Figs..3;'4,.andi 5 are partial enlarged sections of the patentedrmachinewhich are'not altered counter-clockwise direction, As'the rollers 23-The machine comprises aframe having,up-

are shown sketchily or are omitted altogether.

per and lower, tracks or guides 10 (Figs. 1, Fl) supported on suitablelegs as:11,- 12 carried on a base, 13.. Between the upper and lowerguides 10 runthe links 1401 a continuouschain which serves to carry thebook to be bound throughthe machine, and which is propelledby means oflasprocket 15. Broadly, the' invention'conlsists in cutting the backs ofthe books which are previously gathered or assembled from a series ofsignatures.- ,Thiscutting operation severs and separates all'of thesheets so that they are now held in the form of a tablet and requirethat this cut edge be glued after which a super and cover areappliedthereto. The present invention relates, primarily, to an improvedmachine for performing this gluing operation.

Speaking generally, the book A gripped by the chain while being carriedforward is trimmed on the back by means of a suitable cutter,' such asthe band saw B; after which it passes to the first glue pot C. Thetrimmed back istgivena coat of thin glue which, as will later bedescribed, is.worked into the leaves at the back of the book. The bookthen passes through a chilling device D where the thin glue from theglue pot C will be chilled, and thereby considerably ond coating ofthicker glue as it passes over the glue pot E, after which a super isapplied by a ready to receive another book to be bound;

, The carrier chain of the machine comprises I a series of links 14hingedly connected. together by means of pins 16, on the upper'and lowerends of 'which are mounted rollers 1'7, lawhich pass between the upperand lower channel shaped guides 10. These links 14 are provided H withlongitudinally spaced and. laterally oflset openings through which passguide pins'19- which are attached to opposite ends of clamping plates20. These plates arelnormallydrawn toward the links 14 "by means-ofsprings 21 on the inner ends of the guide pins 19,; these springsthickened, after which the-book is given a'secfacting upon a cross bar22 which is attached at its two ends to the two pins 19. This crossbarcarries near its center, a roller 23 which is pivthe oppositeend of thecam; The sprocket 15- is n'o mounted upon a shaft 25 which" is"journaled "in otally mounted, and which serves, when pressed i 10;

suitable bearings carried by the main frame, and has keyed thereon abevel gear 26 which is meshed with a driving pinion 27 on a shaft 28,

36 at the rear end of the glue: pot C by means of suitable sprockets anda chain 37 which runs thereover. The shaft has a bevel pinion 38 keyedthereon which meshes with bevel gears 39, 40, these gears being keyed onshafts 41, 42 respectively which are suitably journaled in the glue potC.

.These shafts carry spiral gears 43, 44 which lie immediately beneaththe path of the book A to be bound, and dip into the glue of the gluepot and serve to carry this glue up, and to wipe it across the'bottomcut back of the book. It will be observed that the direction of travelofthese gears is in opposite direction across the bottom of the book, sothat these'projectin'g edges are fanned or spread first. in onedirection from normal, and then in the other; so as to cause this glueto be thoroughly worked into the back and to .both surfaces of thesheets closely adjacent their back edges. V I This glue is made quitethin and is kept hot by any desired means (not shown) so as to betterenable it to penetrate the sheets. Followving the gluing gears 43., 44is a gluing wheel 45 which is carried on a shaft 46 which has a bevelgear 47 meshing with another gear 48, which is carried on a shaft 49which has a' bevel gear 50 meshing with the bevel gear 40. The gluingwheel 45 adds a fresh amount of the thin glue tothe bottom of the bookand assists further in working the glue inbetween' the sheets.

. As the book then proceeds itpasses through between two oppositelydisposed pressing idler rollers 51, 52 (see Fig. 3). Theserollers aremounted upon vertical pivots carriedv by the glue potv G and serve topress the laterally spread edges of'the sheets A from the dotted linepositionto the full ,line position of Fig. 3, at the same time squeezingout some of the'glu'e which is held between the edges of these sheets.The glue pot C is adjustably carried on stand- 'ards C.

As the book A passes these rollersit passes overa rotary scraper 53which is mounted on the shaft 36, this scraper being rotated so that itsupper edge runs counter' .to the edge of the book, thereby scraping fromthe back of the book anyexcessiglue. The links carrying the books A thenpass around the sprocket 15 and as they do so are brought into thesemi-circular trough -54 of the chilling mechanism D. The trough 54 hasa bottom 55. in which is a series of holes 56 communicating with apassage 57 .whichyextends throughout: the length of the trough 54. Nearthe entering end of the trough located a' container 58 having aremovable cap 59 by which it can readily be filled with dry ice, or thelike 60. A current of air is preferably slowly passed over this dry iceby means of a tube 61 from any source of air pressure. Whenso employedthe air passes down This shaft drives, through suitable sprockets and achain 34, a shaft 35 which drives the glue feeding mechanism of the gluepot C. The shaft 35 in turn drives a shaft through the cooling medium60, is chilled to a point well below zero, and passes up through theopenings 56 into contact with the glued back of the book A. In this waythe glue becomes chilled and considerably thickened by the time itpasses out of the opposite end of the mechanism D. i

"As the book leaves the chilling device it passes over the glue po'tE'filled with-aheavy glue which is particularly adapted to hold thecover which is later to be applied. Having chilled the thin glue whichhas been previously applied, the glued back of the book is now incondition to receive this thicker glue. The glue pot E has a gluefeeding roller 62 adapted to carry glue to the back of the book, andwhich is mounted on a shaft 63 which is driven by means of sprockets anda chain 64 from the shaft 33. The shaft 63 also carries a sprocket 65which drives a sprocket 66, which in turndrives through a gear 67, agear 68 on a shaft 69. This shaft carries a rotary scraper similar tothe scraper 53 which removes the excess glue which has been deposited bythe glue wheel 62. V V

Passing the glue pot E the book Anext passes over the mechanism F bymeans of which a super is fed to the glued back of the book. Thismechanism is shown in side elevation in Fig. 4, and is operated in timedrelation to the positioning of the book A by. means of a cam- 70 on theshaft 28. This cam serves to operate a lever 71 pivotally mounted at72-. An operating rod 73 is pivotally connected to theopposite end ofthe lever 71, the upper end of this rod being connected to a slidingblock 74 which is normally retracted, as shown in Fig.4.

A roll of open mesh gauze 75,.is mounted upon a suitable reel 76 whichis carried by the .frame 77 of the super mechanism. This gauze passesthrough between two feed rolls 78, 7-9,. the latter being driven bymeans of a'ratchet 80 and a spring pressed pawl 81 which is carried on alever 82, which is pivotally mounted on the shaft of the roller 79, theouter end of the lever 82 being pivotally. connected to a rod 83 whichis adjustably connected to the end of the lever 71.

Thus it will be seen that as the rod 834s raised, the pawl 82 will snapover the teeth of theratchet 80,and then as therod 83 drops the pawlwill engage the teeth of the ratchet thereby rotating the roller-.79 apart of ya revolution in a counterclockwise direction. Thus the gauze 75is forced through by the feed rollers and it passes underneath a fixedblock 84 which has a. sharp shearing rear edge, the opposite member ofthe shear being carried by. the block 74. Thus as the block raises itcuts off the portion 85 of the gauze 75, and the portion so severedserves as a super. This-super is then raisedby the block 74, and whennear the bottom of the book'A a blast of air from a pipe 86, connectedto' a blower, (not shown) serves to lift the-super 85 into contact withthe glued back of the book where it adheres and is carried forward bythebook. As the rods 72 and 83 then fall'a new portion of the gauze 75'is herein in detail, but which is shown in the Bredenberg patent abovereferred to.- Thecover J is then applied as described therein, or in anyother desired way, the book and cover then passing around therounded'guides 87.

As the rollers 23 strike the cam 24, the rollers ride up on the camforcing the plates 20 outwardly and releasing the bound and coveredbooks which drop on the delivery conveyor H,

by which they are carried oil.

Referring now to Fig. 2, the gathered but uncut and unbound books A arecarried to the chain 14 by means of a conveyor 88 which runs in timedrelation to the chain 14 so that each book A is fed to one of the chainlinks 14 while it is held open by the cam 24. On running off the upperend of this conveyor the book A is positioned by the'horizontal table 89carried by the main frame at which time the roller passes oil the end ofthe cam 24 thereby gripping the book to be bound.

This book is then trimmed by the band saw B which is driven by thepulley B on the shaft I While we have shown and described but a singleembodiment of our invention, it is to be understood that it is capableof many modifications. Changes, therefore, in the construction andarrangementmay be made which do not depart from the spirit and scope ofthe invention as disclosed in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In a mechanism for gluing the back edges of books and the like, meansfor applying glue to the edges of the books, means for chilling the gluethus applied, and means for applying glue to the glued edges subsequentto chilling same.

2. In a mechanism for gluing the back edges of books and the like, meansfor applying glue to the edges of the books,'a housing'through which theglued portions of the books pass, means for chillingthe housing, andmeans for applying glue to the glued edges subsequent to chilling thesame.

3. In a mechanism for gluing the back edges of books and the like, meansfor applying glue to the edges of the books, a housing through which theglued portions of the books pass, said housing having means for holdinga refrigerant for chilling the glued portions, and means for applyingglue to the glued edges subsequent to chilling the same. a

4. In a mechanism for gluing the back-edges 90 of books and the like,means for applying glue to the edges of the books, means for scraping,ofi excess glue, means for chilling the glued portions, and means forapplying glue to the glued edges subsequent to chilling the same.

5. In a mechanism for gluing the back edges of books and the like, meansfor applying glue to the edges of the books, a U-shaped housing throughwhich the glued portions of the books pass, a perforated passagecommunicating with said housing, and a chamber .for holding arefrigerant communicating with the passage.

6. In a mechanism for gluing the back edges of books and the like, meansfor applying relatively thin hot glue to the edges of the, books,

means'for simultaneously spreading the leaves at the point ofapplication of the glue, means for applying the pressure to the sides ofthe book adjacent the glued portions to force the glued edges together,a housing through which the

